A Week Between Five Friends
by Vampiric Phantoms
Summary: Take a walk with Bender, Claire, Andrew, Brian, and Allison in the week following the infamous detention. See how everyone dealt with the secrets that were shared in those nine hours.
1. Claire

**Part 1 in 6**

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Monday morning, first period. Claire sat in her math class in her usual spot, right in the middle with the rest of her clique. The middle was the perfect place to sit; no matter where the teacher walked it was never by her.

This little trick came in handy in times when her mind was else where, times like this. She sat there with the tip of her pencil in her hand, lazily doodling things in her notebook. How was she supposed to think of math while her mind was in turmoil?

Behind her and to her left she kept receiving notes, whispers and pokes from her two best friends. They had both noticed the change in their friend; after all it was pretty hard to miss. With all their poking and prodding, Claire would not acknowledge them. They wanted to know what happened Saturday at detention and, come on; they did have the right to know.

"Claire? Claire, what in God's name is wrong with you?" "Yeah, come on and spill already. What happened?" Ashley and Lauren kept pestering her, and she was about to snap.

"Shut up, will you?" she hissed at them when it got too much. Why could they not just drop it?

"Miss Standish, can you please hold your outbursts until lunch?" the math teacher asked eyeing her.

Claire sulked, sliding down into her seat to get away from the extra attention. "Sorry, Mrs. Slexington," she muttered looking down to her doodles.

As Mrs. Slexington went back to explaining the Pythagorean Theorem, Claire was continually harassed by her friends. And just think it – if they knew about the kiss, or why she was not wearing her renowned diamond earrings, the harassment would never end! She could not possibly tell them what happened.

When the bell rang signaling the change of class Claire made a mad dash for the door, hightailing it to her locker. Why did she have to go and get stuck in this mess? Why?! She just had to go and kiss Bender, didn't she? She could not keep her lips to herself.

Ashley and Lauren came up next to her as she tried her lock for the third time. "Claire, what is going on with you?" Ashley asked.

"Nothing," came her flat reply. "Nothing is going on – why won't this damn lock open?" she yelled hitting her fist against it.

"Because you are not putting in the combination, stupid" Lauren said, opening it for her. "Now, tell us what happened Saturday. Obviously something did."

Claire shook her head, trying to make them go away. She slammed her books in the locker and yanked them out as the situation got worse. In her rage she lost balance with her textbook and it crashed to the ground. She groaned and bent to pick it up but someone beat her to the task. A strong hand with a denim jacket was in her view. She gulped and averted her gaze to the person's feet, and sure enough there was Bender's boots.

She stood up and saw him holding her book out to her. "Bender," she said. "Claire," was his reply.

As they stared at each other, Ashley and Lauren gawked. What was happening to the world? First Claire would not speak to them and now Bender was helping her and she wasn't fighting. Ashley hated this and took the book from him. She held the corner of it with the tips of her thumb and pointed finger. "Let's go, Claire," she said in a disgusting tone. "It isn't healthy to be seen with him."

Claire stood looking at Bender, wondering what to do. She wasn't ready for this! Now was the time … fight or flight. And she chose – "Yeah, we'll be late." She snatched her book back, keeping her eyes from Bender's fallen face.

His sadness was soon replaced with anger. "I knew it," Claire heard him say. She slowly looked up to him as he glared at her. "I was stupid to think otherwise." He shook his head and stormed off, punching everything in sight as he went.

"Well, that was disturbing," Lauren said, wrinkling her nose in contempt. Claire just huffed and slammed her locker shut, stomping off in the direction of Bender. It was just her luck to have next period with him.

This time she sat in the front and they both sat behind her. Bender was three rows over and four seats back in the far left hand corner. As everyone took their seat, Ashley and Lauren exchanged questioning glances.

Class soon started but nobody noticed. Health was a blow-off class anyway. Everyone went to doing their own things. Claire tapped her nails, Ashley filed hers, Lauren combed her hair, and Bender tapped his pen as he drew, humming to himself.

Not but ten minutes into class someone was already in trouble. "Mr. Bender, I hope those are Health notes you are working on."

"I don't know, sir," Bender replied. "Do condoms pertain to health?" Everyone snickered, excluding Mr. Bakker.

"No," he said shortly. "They do not. I suggest you put your pen down and pay attention."

"Why?" Bender asked. "I'm not bothering any one."

"You are bothering me. Now put it down."

"You? But Mr. Bakker, you are all the way up there and I'm all the way back here. What could I possibly have done?" Bender asked mocking innocence.

"Listen to me boy -" Mr. Bakker began before he was cut short.

"Will everyone just give it a rest?" Claire shouted standing up. She was so tired of this and she would not keep silent any more. "Seriously, it's always 'Bender this', and 'Bender that'. Leave him alone for Christ's sake!"

Everyone stared at her with their jaws to the ground, including Bender. "Miss Standish, I suggest you sit." Mr. Bakker stammered.

"Or what?" she asked. "Ever wonder why he doesn't listen to you? Maybe because no one else stands up for him."

"If you do not like the way I run my class, then you can leave," Mr. Bakker said angrily.

"Maybe I will," she said gathering her books and marching to the door. A foot away from the doorway, Mr. Bakker called out; "If you step one foot out you get a Saturday detention."

Claire paused and turned around, staring between everyone. Her friends looked at her like she was crazy (and maybe she was), Mr. Bakker looked angry, and Bender was just shocked; she looked between them all wondering what to do. She looked into Bender's eyes and he knew her answer. Clutching her books to her she stepped out the door. "See you in detention, John," she said with a gleam in her eye, then turned and walked away with an air of confidence around her.


	2. Andrew

**Part 2 of 6**

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Tuesday; lunch. At Shermer High School word travels fast. And when there is a juicy story going around it picks up details. Oh sure, the original skeleton of the story remained, but it is frittered away by detail.

There were now several versions of what happened on Monday in second period. The skeleton of it still remained; Claire stood up for Bender, accepting a Saturday detention in the process. The most absurd of these rumors, the one that made all in the Breakfast Club laugh out loud, was that Claire and Bender were doing it together. Claire, feeling obligated to Bender because he was her first, stood up for him accepting her fate.

Andrew, of course, could not help but laugh at the absurdity in this folktale. He knew the truth, and he and Allison would just snicker when someone truly believed these rumors.

Allison and he had not been as secretive about their relationship as Claire and Bender had been. On Sunday they had spoken on the phone and they both agreed not to keep it hidden. He admits it was hard in the beginning, his friends constantly hassling him, and he could see Allison was completely out of her element, but they made it through Monday. Tuesday was a little easier, but not all his problems had disappeared.

Andrew was haunted by a certain conversation held on Saturday; what would he do if Brian came up to him? Claire's prediction was pretty accurate at the moment. He did not like it, he hated it, but he was too much of a coward to change it. Brian avoided him for the most part, but it was only Tuesday. His friends did not mind Allison all too much, they even accepted the fact he did not want to talk about Larry Lester, but an encounter with Brian would be too much.

"Earth to Andrew," Allison said, waving her hand in front of his eyes to get his attention. He snapped back to reality and looked to her. "What?" he asked.

"What has you thinking so hard?" Jason asked his friend. For several minutes he and Mason had been trying to get his attention and finally Allison had to intervene.

He looked between them, and then shook his head. "Nothing, it's nothing." Allison rolled her eyes at his response, and he saw his friends did not believe him either. But thankfully they all dropped it.

When ten minutes of lunch remained they all decided to dump their trays to avoid the rush when the bell rang. To get to the garbage cans they had to pass right by Brian and his table.

So now what was Andrew supposed to do? Could he just walk right by and blow him off? But that would be doing exactly what he said he would not do. He was better than that.

As he got closer he could see Brian watching him out the corner of his eye. He knew Brian was wondering the same thing he was.

His chance soon came and he did … nothing. He mentally cursed himself for proving to be so weak. But instead of sulking he hardened himself against what people would say, he was going for it.

Once more they passed the 'nerd' table and he locked at Brian. When he reached them he patted Brian on the shoulder and said, "Hey."

It was not much, but that was all he could get out. But he did not care. He just proved to himself, to Brian, and to everyone else that he was strong. He was strong on the inside, not just the outside.

Brian, on his part, stared fro a moment not sure how t respond at first. He was in a slight state of shock. Finally he was able to mutter a hello and looked to his friends, smiling with pride.

As Andrew sat down, he was smiling with self-congratulations. Allison was smiling as well, but Jason and Mason just looked on with confused faces. There was obviously something going on that they did not know about.

"So?" Mason asked when it was apparent neither Andrew nor Allison would enlighten them on the situation.

"So what?" Andrew asked.

"So what was that about?" Jason returned.

"What was what about?"

"Oh, stop playing dumb. Why did you say hi to him?"

Andrew shrugged, now what was he to say. "Can't I talk to whoever I want to talk to?" he asked.

"Well … yeah-" began Jason.

"So what's the problem?" Andrew asked defensively.

"Nothing, sheesh, calm down. It was just a question."

This is when the bell rang and Andrew bolted. Allison, Jason, and Mason sat stunned at his sudden departure. The two friends turned to Allison, hoping to get something from her. She saw their look and shook her head, "Don't look at me," she said getting up and following after Andrew.

Andrew was over at his locker getting his books for his next class. Several lockers down he noticed Brian at his. Next to Brian's locker was the locker of one of the football players (a real mammoth of a guy), who went to his right as Brian opened his blackened one.

"Yo, Shrimp, your gun going off ruined my locker," the receiver, Clinton, said knocking Brian over his head with his hand.

Brian scowled silently and rubbed the back of his head irritated. "Sorry," was all he said before going back to his business.

Andrew watched as Clinton whined about the cassettes in his locker he lost due to the flare gun going off. When Brian refused to show fear, or even interest in what Clinton was saying, Clinton grabbed him by his shirt collar and hauled him up.

This is when Brian started to show fear, and when Andrew decided to once more prove he was not a coward. He walked forwards, leaving Allison with wide eyes, and tapped Clinton on his shoulder.

Clinton looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes, "What do you want, Clark?" he asked annoyed.

"Let him go," he said simply.

"How about no?" Clinton said turning back to Brian.

Andrew shook his head and moved beside Brian so Clinton would look at him. "Did I stutter? Let. Him. Go," he repeated, dragging out each syllable.

"Or what?" Clinton asked confidently. He was a football player and all Andrew was, was a wrestler; what could he do?

"Or … " Andrew said calmly, then punched Clinton in his face. "That"

Clinton doubled back, letting go of Brian. Brian pushed out of the way and into the crowd that was beginning to assemble. Andrew just stood there smirking, watching as Clinton regained his footing.

Clinton focused on Andrew, anger raging through his eyes. "You're going to regret that," he hissed and ran towards him.

Andrew, being on the wrestling team, easily avoided Clinton, who isn't. Right when Clinton ran passed him he hooked his arms around him and pushed him to the ground. Clinton put up a good fight, but was no match.

The kids watching the fight were chanting and yelling, some even placing bets on who would win (and it was pretty obvious). Unfortunately, though, the yelling attracted the attention of Mr. Vernon. And it took him and one more teacher to pull Andrew off of Clinton.

"What the … ? This is the second time in two weeks, Clark!" Mr. Vernon said angrily. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Andrew felt a surge of panic, but as soon as it came, it was gone. He pushed away from the grip of the teacher and shrugged.

"Well, I have something to say, detention!" Vernon yelled. He waited for the satisfaction of watching Andrew's fallen face, but it never came. Andrew did not so much as wince. Instead he showed a small hint of a smile and nodded.

He turned around and went to Allison. "See you there, sir," he said and they walked away, Andrew's head held high and his arm draped around his girl.

-

**boglover – **Thank you, my first reviewer!

**Jemascola, Goddess Nemesis, Dark 1, Astrakane, Xlittle-pyroX, plgdintoawall, BalaLey – **Thank you

**MidnightBlue88 – **Thank you for your suggestions. I kept them in mind as I wrote this chapter and I hope I put them to good use.

**Sandsagent – **Sorry, dear, but no Bender in this one. He comes sooner though


	3. Allison

**Part 3 of 6**

Wednesday, fourth period. Allison sighed as she walked through the hallway, scuffing her Converse against the linoleum floor. She kept her eyes cast downward; glancing up every now and then to make sure she knew where she was going. She hadn't quite been able to shake out of her skin to play the role of a jock's girlfriend, but Andrew did not seem to care about it all that much. She knew it was hard for him, but it was hard for her too and she was not ready to break free from her old habits.

The bell quickly rang for fourth period to begin, but unlike most other students in the hallway, she did not rush to make it in time. So what if she was late? It would not be the end of the world. Besides, she was not in too much of a hurry to get to Algebra anyway. The less time she had to spend in that class the better. Because of her silent state teachers tended to leave her alone anyway.

With all the luck going for her, Allison made it on time for the door to be closed in her face. Because she had been looking down while attempting to walk through the doorway she somewhat went through shock from the loud noise. However, it did not take long for the shock to wear off and irritation take its place. Honestly, how rude could some teachers be? But instead of throwing a fuss like most of her classmates would do, she just quietly entered and quickly walked to the back to take her seat.

On her way back she passed Claire who just gave her a look. A look that could be translated to say "you're asking for it." Allison just gave a small smile and shrug. Claire knew her aversion to attention and she saw coming in late as just asking for the confrontation. However, Allison had a slow, laid-back way of life and did not see the point in changing that so she would not have to deal with a prissy teacher.

Allison sat down and quickly glanced around to make sure her classmates found something more interesting to look at. It definitely was not going to be the quadratic equation written on the board, but whatever worked. Pulling her messenger bag onto her lap she began to dig through looking for her current piece of art. Successfully finding it, she then began to search for her coal pencil.

After a few minutes of pulling miscellaneous objects out of her bag, Allison became aware of several eyes on her. Looking up slowly between the strands of her hair she saw the class, including the teacher, staring at her. Glancing down she coincidentally spotted her pencil. She pulled it out and threw everything else back into her bag within a few seconds. Sitting silently for a few moments she looked back up once more seeing the class still looking at her.

"If you are through…" the teacher stated rather annoyed. Usually Allison was quiet and she was more than happy allowing Allison to her own designs, but her loud rummaging was not something tolerable.

Allison just let out a noise somewhere between a squeak and a sigh. Was it so hard for people to just ignore her? All the geeks in the school seemed to get that attention (or lack thereof); why couldn't she? Then again, it might have something to do with dating a jock.

Once everyone was looking forward again Allison went back to her art work. This particular picture was a gray scale of a sunrise over a field of sunflowers. It was probably her "happiest" work, but she found it was quite enjoyable to draw. It was also tedious because of all the odd-shaped petals. But putting her talent to the test was nice to do every now and then; and, dare she say it, she was improving.

Allison went about eyeing up her picture and adding a few strokes of coal here and there. She still had the top half of the picture waiting to be realized, but she wanted to work on perfecting some of the flowers that she was not too pleased with. She had been working on this for weeks, close to a month now. From the way it was coming she was willing to bet it would be one of her best.

She could not wait to complete it and present it to Andrew. He had given her his letterman jacket but he had nothing of hers. So, she decided to give him something that represented her. The only thing she could think of that was representative of herself was her art. She could have also given him one of her famous Capp'n Crunch cereal sandwiches, but she felt that would not have been as heartfelt. At least a picture would last longer and would not have to go through the process of being digested.

A good thirty minutes into Algebra class, Allison was happy to look down at her field and see the flowers were basically finished. Blowing away the coal shavings she smiled. Now she just had to draw the sunrise. Frowning she realized she probably should have started with that first. It was going to be hard to draw the sunrise without smudging the flowers. But then it would have also been hard trying to draw a sunrise with no horizon. She could always try and draw it upside down, but she was not too sure on her talent to do that.

Deciding to practice drawing upside down, Allison carefully put the picture at the top of her bag and pulled out a separate sheet of paper. Quickly drawing a horizon line she flipped the page and started working at the top. She drew a sun peeking over the edge of the line. Letting her coal pencil loosely trail away from the sun she drew the beginnings of rays. She also drew wispy clouds for the rays to peek through; however the clouds came out looking more like cotton balls than realistic clouds. That was definitely something to work harder on. Finally she began shading; alternating between the pressure she would put on the pencil to make some places darker than others.

Once she was done she flipped the paper back over, hopeful of her drawing. But when she saw the final product she winced. Well, it looked nice when it was upside down, but that is not how Andrew will be looking at it … unless she made it into abstract art. However that was not her mission so she tried again using the opposite side of the horizon.

Through her concentration, Allison slightly became aware of an incessant ringing. But she ignored it to try and get her practice sunrise just right. She was on her fourth copy and she had perfected everything except those stupid clouds. She could not quite find a trick to it yet and she was desperate.

Not long after that ringing Allison became aware of a tapping on her shoulder. Rolling it to try and make the person go away she was given a slight reprieve until it started again. Sighing to put down her coal pencil and looked up to see Claire. "Bell rang," was all she said before heading off to her next class.

Allison sighed and quickly threw her practice drawings into her bag, along with her pencil. Then placing her real drawing on top of everything she rushed out the class to make it to the next one. Her English teacher was not as lenient as her Algebra teacher. If she wanted to avoid a confrontation she would have to make it to class on time.

In her usual fashion Allison kept her head down, only glancing up every now and then. Halfway to English she caught sight of Andrew talking to a few of his friends. She smiled to herself; she still could not believe she managed to snag the most popular guy in the school. Her; the basket case who could not do anything right. But somewhere down the line she must have made the right move ... probably when she agreed to let Claire do her hair and make-up.

As she walked by him she could not help but just stare. It was not like she would be called a freak for staring, anyway. She had not taken her eyes off of him when she walked by and he must have managed to notice because he looked up and smiled to her, giving her a wink.

Allison blushed and quickly looked down, still not used to the attention. It was nice, but foreign and she would rather not make a fool of herself. Andrew expected her to react this way so he knew she was not avoiding him.

But in her rush to avoid eye contact someone ran into her, knocking her and all her belongings onto the floor. All her possessions went flying across the hallway as everyone laughed. She quickly went down looking for her drawing wanting to save that above anything else. Screw her school books and her coal pencil; she needed that drawing! After searching the perimeter around her she saw her sunflower field lying halfway across the hall. However fast she moved she could not get to it in time when someone – the person who crashed into her – stepped on the drawing, leaving a footprint.

At first Allison just knelt there in utter shock. That footprint could not be removed from the drawing. All her hard work, all her practice and patience for what? Someone to go trampling through her field!

The quiet, reserved Allison was quickly replaced with one whose eyes burned red in anger. How dare that bastard ruin _her_ artwork! Did he not understand that was for her boyfriend? Did he not understand that she kept to herself and all she wanted in return was the same treatment? Jumping up Allison stormed over to the jock who stood there laughing.

Allison could hear Andrew calling to her but she ignored him. She did not have time to deal with him right now. He was probably just going to get her to calm down so she would not harm one of his buddies. But screw him and screw one of his buddies; her hard work was ruined.

Standing in front of the stupid jock Allison watched as he stopped laughing and adapted a smug look. Staring at each other Allison decided this was nowhere near as effective as she wished it would be. She may be a quiet person, but no one messes with her art. She needed to find an effective way to transfer this message and she knew just saying it would not work. She needed to leave this jock with a promise, or better yet a threat, letting him know she would not be messed with.

Smiling evilly to herself, Allison decided she came up with the perfect plan. What did a jock love more than his ego? His pecker. Allison stepped closer to the jock. She had to tilt her head up to look him in the eye, but she did not let height deter her.

Moving her hand slowly towards his groin so he would not see, she snatched his crotch in her hand and squeezed. This would teach that bastard to respect her property. Granted this would not fix her drawing, but it sure was satisfying.

The jock, in turn, instantly lost the smug look on his face. Allison was putting quite an amount of pressure and he feared one wrong move and she would do some damage. He stared at her, his eyes wide in shock. He would have never expected the quiet one to do something like this, but then again he always knew she was weird.

"Ever step on any of my things again and I would make sure you will lose this part of your anatomy." Staring at him hard in the eyes, she felt that her message was not getting across. Sighing in aggravation she squeezed even harder and smiled when she heard a surprised whimper escape his lips. "Understand?" she asked.

Receiving a nod from him was good enough for Allison. She really did not want to listen to his voice anyway. But did he have to be so weak? Really now, she was not even squeezing as hard as she could, but whatever worked.

The only reason she let go was because she heard her name coming from an authoritative voice. Backing away from the annoyance before her she never lost eye contact. To be honest she really did not like this situation, but enough was enough. She has had to deal with enough crap from these people.

Coming up beside her was Mr. Vernon. Allison just glanced at him, then turned on her heal and began picking up her things. She did not have patience for the incompetent principal so decided to go about collecting her things. She saw some of it had already been gathered, from Andrew she was guessing. She could hear Mr. Vernon go on about something, but she did not pay any attention. He never had anything important to say anyway.

After making sure she had everything, Allison grabbed her drawing with the footprint now adorning it. Sighing, she carefully paced it into her bag and stood up to continue on with her day. The bell had rung a while ago so now she had to deal with the teacher who insisted on her being punctual. However, Mr. Vernon seemed intent on making her even more late.

"Did you hear me young lady?" he asked aggravated with having to deal with her. He has had to correct every child who was in Saturday detention last week. Did sometime in those eight hours they decide to gang up on him? "I expect to see you in Saturday detention _on time_."

Allison just rolled her eyes; like that was such a huge threat. Mr. Vernon expected children to cower when he walks by – or show him respect – and when they do not he resorts to Saturday detention. Hell, last week she went just because she had nothing else to do. Being told she had to go was no big deal. Not to mention Andrew would already be there so it was not like she was giving up anything. Actually, Claire, Andrew and Bender (who's there until the end of his high school career) would be there so what the hell. She probably would have gone on her own again anyway.

After watching Mr. Vernon walk away Allison let out a laugh, oddly (or characteristically) sounding much like a squeak. Just watching him walk was amusing. He was actually looking around in hopes of seeing the cowering students. And the look of disappointment on his face was quite evident.

Then, becoming aware of a presence by her side she turned to see Andrew wrap his arm around her shoulder.

"Were you really going to castrate him?" Andrew asked, half impressed and half scared for his own family jewels. Allison just looked at him and batted her eyelashes. "Compulsive liar."

--

**A/N**: I'm sure the people out there hate me by now. LOL Allison is definitely the hardest one for me to write. I'm trying to make a small part of her day a little interesting, but I can't seem to get into her head. We are both basket cases, but we are definitely on the opposite ends of the spectrum. But thank you to everyone who replied!

Anyway I seem to have a predicament. While writing this I was having trouble with paragraph breaks. Is there anyone out there who might be able to help with that? I can't seem to figure out when's a good time to break and when's not a good time. It's different when I'm writing a chapter in a story to when I'm writing a five paragraph essay for my English teacher. It feels like I'm breaking in the wrong places. Anyone?


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